Diners at top restaurant are 'turfed out so Prince Harry could eat undisturbed'

Complaints: Diners at Kesgrave Hall were angry at being moved for Prince Harry

Prince Harry sent an exclusive Suffolk bistro into a spin last night after turning up unannounced for a secret meal out with friends.

Many regulars were left disgruntled after being told they would have to eat outside at the four-star Milsom’s Kesgrave Hall, in Kesgrave, near Ipswich, after the prince booked out nearly a third of the inside tables.

Harry, accompanied by three bodyguards, arrived in a blacked out Range Rover at around 7pm on Tuesday.

He dined with two people, a man and a woman thought to be in their 30s, as his bodyguards sat nearby, leaving three other tables unoccupied.

But other people eating out at the packed restaurant, which does not normally accept table bookings, were told they would have to have to eat outside if they wanted a table.

One diner, who did not want to be named, said: 'It was pretty incredible to see a member of the Royal Family turn up just as we were sitting down for dinner.

'But it did cause a bit of a stir because many of us regulars didn’t particularly want to sit outside on a chilly night.

'Harry had booked out all the tables on the upper tier of the restaurant so we didn’t really have a choice.'

Harry, who is training to fly Apache helicopters at nearby Wattisham Airfield, in Suffolk, spent three hours at the 19th century hotel and restaurant, a converted boys’ boarding school.

The diner added: 'He seemed pretty relaxed. He wasn’t drunk or anything like that. He might have had a glass of wine but it seemed like he was just enjoying a meal out like everyone else.

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'I don’t think some people at the restaurant realised who it was until he got up and left. He was sat in a corner on a raised level and you really had to look to see him. He was out of most people’s view.'

Swanky: Kesgrave Hall, where Prince Harry dropped in for a meal, but didn't make any friends

Chill factor: Guests were forced to eat outside in the cold, while Prince Harry ate inside

The restaurant and hotel, where rooms
cost up to £250 a night and vintage red wine is priced at £380 a bottle,
opened in 2008 after being converted from its former use as a boys’
boarding school.

It is not known what the Prince ordered during his three-hour visit.

Dishes on the menu include a roast loin of Braxted Park lamb, for £18.25, and a £19.95 chargrilled rose veal cutlet.

A spokesman for Kesgrave Hall, built in 1812, refused to comment on the visit.

A source said Harry had wanted to keep the visit a secret.

A spokesman for Prince Harry said:
'Prince Harry did not request extra space in the restaurant, just enough
for himself and his guests. If the other tables were booked out, they
were not done so at the request of Prince Harry.'

Kesgrave Hall previously attracted
headlines after it emerged controversial former Suffolk County Council
chief executive Andrea Hill had spent two nights there at taxpayers’
expense.

Harry has previously spotted at the
Tesco supermarket, in Copdock, near Ipswich, since being stationed in
Suffolk earlier this year.

He is due to continue his aviation training with a three-month stint in the United States later this year.

After completing the courses in California and Arizona, he will be a fully-fledged Apache pilot.

Support: Prince Harry meets members of the charity which will benefit from the rowing expedition which recreates the wartime escape of men from Holland to the beach in Sizewell, Suffolk

Yesterday, meanwhile, the Prince took a break from military training at near-by Wattisham Airfield to meet the families of four British men recreating a daring sea escape from Nazi-occupied Holland during the Second World War.

The trip is a tribute to 32 Dutchmen who escaped their homeland by kayak 70 years ago. Only eight survived the journey to land on Sizewell beach in Suffolk.

Harry chatted with families at the landing site on the beach as the rowing teams were first spotted on the horizon after their gruelling 40-hour kayaking voyage.

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Diners at Kesgrave Hall complain at being turfed out so Prince Harry could eat undisturbed